Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira
What Went Down: We are introduced to a young girl named Monet St. Croix and her bodyguard Colonel Cord-Becker, a husky English female, both of whom are traveling in a limo. Monet doesn’t move or speak due to some trauma involving her siblings. A member of the Phalanx attacks the limo; he assimilates the limo, driver, and bodyguard, and captures Monet.
Over at the mansion, Banshee is talking to Emma Frost because she is concerned that something is wrong with the X-Men. Before she can elaborate, Iceman and Storm put up a sonic disruptor to silence her. Banshee wonders if Iceman and Storm might be holding a grudge against the former White Queen, but they dismiss it.
Scott and Jean phone the mansion, and Banshee answers it. They explain that they have information about the Legacy Virus that the Professor needs, so Sean sends them to Muir Isle where Xavier is busy hanging out with Moira and Excalibur. Archangel bursts in and uncharacteristically yells at Banshee for answering the call when he is not a full X-Man. This makes Banshee feel like he has lost touch with the X-Men, but he suspects something more is up when he is able to spy on Psylocke walking out of the War Room.
Inside the War Room, Gambit and Bishop are dismantling various computers, explaining that they are upgrading them. Banshee checks a computer and discovers that none of the X-Men are in the building other than himself, Jubilee, Emma Frost, and Sabretooth. The other X-Men are imposters!
Returning to the Communications Room, Banshee hopes to send a message to Xavier, but he finds that the whole room has been dismantled impossibly quickly. Beast questions his reason for being in the room, but Banshee gives him an excuse. He then goes to free Sabretooth, who is being guarded by the Rogue imposter. Using a sonic scream, he discovers the imposter is a member of the Phalanx. After waking up, Sabretooth takes the time to kill the remains of the Phalanx entity.
Sending Sabretooth to rescue Jubilee and Emma, because he has a remote to a detonator located on Creed’s muzzle, Banshee grabs a gun and attacks the Gambit and Bishop imposters in the war room. Sean finds out that the Phalanx are using Cerebro to find young mutants to experiment on. He then sets the self-destruct and escapes in the nick of time. Banshee then vows that he will find the new mutants before the Phalanx can.
How It Was: Welcome to the next big X-Men crossover. This one is a little odd because the X-Men have all been captured, or they’re off doing other things, so the X-Men titles don’t feature a lot of X-Men or even the resolution of this story. Instead, these X-issues serve as set up for the upcoming series Generation X, basically a New Mutants style “young generation of mutants being trained”. And it is no coincidence that three of the stars of this crossover are also going to be the stars of the new series. But it’s still an important crossover, as signified by the shiny cardboard cover.
As for the story this issue, it is pretty good even though the cover completely spoils the twist that all the X-Men have been replaced by Phalanx. Primarily this issue serves as a reintroduction for Banshee, who hasn’t been in the spotlight in ages. It does a great job of fleshing him out, showing him off as the hero, and setting up his feelings that lead to his joining Gen-X. His feelings of distance from the team are perfectly natural, since he hasn’t done anything important in about three years, and the issue also manages to find room for his feelings about his past, Moira, and other aspects of his history that also haven’t been touched on in years. The fake X-Men come off as a little obvious, but Lobdell’s script does a good job at playing off of Banshee’s own insecurities as to why he doesn’t figure it out sooner. While you don’t ever believe that they are the real X-Men, you do believe how Banshee could think they are.
Also exciting is Sabretooth actually getting to do something other than sit in his cell and act menacing. Granted he just starred in the annual and the flashback in X-Men #33, but this feels a lot more substantial. The really neat thing is the dynamic that Banshee can’t really trust his team, since Emma and Sabretooth are former villains and Jubilee is absolutely worthless. This actual tension makes up for the fact that the Phalanx are one-dimensional villains that aren’t really interesting,but they are fun to look at due to Joe Mad’s awesome art style.
You could also criticize some of the story elements since they fail to stand up to logic, but they are necessary for the story to work. If the Phalanx could capture all of the X-Men, why not just capture Banshee as well? Or Sabretooth and Emma? Why not take Jubilee to the same place that the other new mutants are being held? The prologue is also kind of a mixed bag. A character that doesn’t speak or do anything does set up some mystery, but it also isn’t very exciting. However, the female bodyguard does get an awesome scene; how can you not smile at a large British woman making a last stand with a giant pistol named Pickering?
With only a few characters to focus on this issue works really well. Five or six issues of fighting the Phalanx does start to wear after a while, but for now it is pretty exciting.
B+
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